"Six teens were taken to emergency rooms in
California after guzzling hand sanitizer to get
drunk, prompting doctors to issue a warning to
parents about a dangerous new trend, KTLA
reported.
Dr. Bill Mallon, who works in the emergency room
at Los Angeles County USC Medical Center, told
KTLA he had seen too many young people come into
the hospital with alcohol poisoning after drinking
hand sanitizer.
“It doesn't sound appealing, but you have to
remember that kids don't have access to alcohol so
they're very creative," Mallon told KTLA.
Liquid hand sanitizer is inexpensive and
accessible to teenagers, and there are
instructions for distillation online. Sanitizer
is 62 percent ethyl alcohol and 120-proof after
distillation.
"It's essentially a shot of hard liquor," Cyrus
Rangan, director of the toxicology bureau for the
L.A. County Public Health Department and a medical
toxicology consultant for Children's Hospital Los
Angeles, told KTLA. "All it takes is just a few
swallows and you have a drunk teenager."
-Fox News